Dave Pelzer

A Child Called It is a true story written by Dave Pelzer. It’s about the horrifying abuse he went through as a child, written in his child perspective. This novel expressed the desperation Dave felt in his adolescent, and the violence that was inflicted upon him. This is along with his constant battle with hunger and starvation caused by his mother. Pelzer made this book powerful by his use of tone, imagery and motifs in which he exhibited throughout the novel. This allowed the readers to really empathise and create an understanding with the character.
In literature, tone is the attitude the author takes toward the works central theme or subject. By using the tone of a child throughout the novel, rather a more mature voice, Pelzer allows you
A motif that was present all through A Child Called It was David’s starvation and hunger. His constant battle against food was implemented by his mother refusing to feed him as one of her “games.” “I worked on my chores at a snail’s pace. I felt so numb. My thought responses became unclear. It seemed to take minutes to understand each sentence Mother yelled at me.” (Pelzer 105) This torturous strategy made sure David was always weak and preforming his chores slowly, which caused him to receive more physical punishments. All of his attempts of nourishing himself, like stealing and begging, end up thwarted by his mother and result in even more abuse. Being perpetually hungry is second nature to David as he rarely gets enough to eat. This lets us as readers sympathize for this small child as we’ve all felt hunger before, and the thought of him having to go through the horrors while being malnourished and tiny is unbearable. It also enforces the concept that even when his abuse isn’t completely horrifying, he’s still
They allow readers to sympathize with David and develop an understanding on child abuse, aiding to how sickening it really is. Pelzer effectively brought awareness to this national issue by sharing his story and showing that it does happen in some families. Tone was used to show the perspective of a child and their thoughts during abuse. Motif was the consistency of the horrors, and imagery was used for readers to better comprehend and visualize the events happening. Altogether, they made this a powerful novel and one that will stay in the minds of its readers for a very long